Stake setter



Aug. 11, 1964 M. D. CLAUSEN STAKE SETTER 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 Filed July 17, 1961 INVENTOR fllawm ,D. Clause/2 BY 4 lf rggy Aug. 11, 1964 Filed July 17, 1961 M. D. CLAUSEN STAKE SETTER 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 E-I -Q INVENTOR Marazrz .D. G'Zausen lag/Midi? 4 5 4f/orney5.

United States Patent 3,143,805 STAKE SE flit R Marvin I). Clausen, 646 Mabelle Ave., Palo Alto, Calif assignor of one-third to Paui M. iiiibert, Los Gatos,

Calif, and one-third to Donald C. Kjeistrup, Sunnyvale, Calif.

Filed July 17, 1961, Ser. No. 124,531 7 Claims. (Cl. 33-74) This invention relates to stake driving instruments and more particularly to a stake setter calibrated such as by a surveyors rod for setting stakes at a desired elevation.

The invention is particularly useful in the art of surveying in which it has been a common practice to drive stakes into the earth until the top of the stakes are disposed at the desired elevation predetermined by a designing engineer or the like. For example, in the building of highways, stakes are driven into the road bed at, say, the center line thereof, by mallet and subsequently a surveyors rod is placed to stand upon such stake while the surveyor instrumentman by transit telescope some distance away reads the calibrations on the rod to determine whether the top of the stake is at the exact elevation required. If it is not, the rod must be removed and the stake again hit by mallet or if the stake had been driven too deep it must be pulled out, the earth replaced and the stake re-driven by mallet, the rod replaced on the rod and then the readings on the rod again checked by the surveyor as previously explained.

The present invention seeks to alleviate such repeated operations and is so constituted as to require only one man, as distinguished from two, namely, a man to drive the stakes and a man to hold the rod otherwise known as rodman.

It is an object of this invention to provide a device for setting stakes at a proper elevation.

Another object is to provide a stake setter coordinated with a surveyors rod facilitating transit readings thereon during the stake setting operation.

These and other objects and advantages of the present invention will become apparent in the following description when read in the light of the accompanying drawing in which:

FIG. 1 is a panoramic view of a length of highway illustrating the stake setter of the present invention in use thereon.

FIG. 2 is an enlarged perspective view of the stake setter and a stake.

FIG. 3 is an enlarged vertical section through the stake setter.

FIG. 4 is a front View of the stake setter.

FIG. 5 is a horizontal section through the stake setter.

FIG. 6 is partial fragmentary perspective of an attachment for adopting the setter for driving pipe stakes.

FIG. 7 is a perspective view of another attachment for tamping the earth.

Referring to FIG. 1 of the drawing, a portion of a highway H is illustrated in perspective as having a center line C/ L and a curbing line C and C equidistant on each side thereof. Such highways are to be constructed with a transverse crown contour which is high at center and usually low at curb lines. In surveying rough terrain over which a highway is to be constructed, it is customary to set stakes at, say fifty (50) foot intervals, to establish the grade and levels thereof for the pavers. In the illustration of FIG. 1, I have shown stakes S, sometimes called hubs, placed at the curbs, midway the centerline C/L and curbs thereof, and one being set at the highpoint of the crown. The stakes S are set into the earth with the upper surfaces 0 thereof disposed at the desired level or elevation which will ultimately become the surface of the road.

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In other words, the top 0 of each stake S establishes the grade to be attained.

In accordance with the present invention the stakes S are placed by a stake setter 10, one of which is illustrated in operation in FIG. 1 and at larger scale with respect thereto in FIG. 2.

The stake setter 10 is coordinated with a surveyors rod 11 to measure elevations upwardly from the top 0 of a stake S being driven so that on sighting of the measured graduations on the rod via a transit telescope T it can be determined whether or not the top of the stake is at the proper elevation.

Referring now to FIGS. 2 through 5 of the drawing, the stake setter 10 generally comprises a sleeve body 12 in which a hammer rod or bar 13 (FIG. 4) associated I with a surveyors rod 11 is arranged for reciprocation by hand. The bottom end of the sleeve is such as to receive a stake S to be driven by the hammer 13.

More specifically the sleeve 12 is preferably of square cross section and internally dimensioned to receive a hub or stake S of comparable size. The hammer 13 is likewise of square cross section, but a solid bar arranged for sliding movement within the sleeve 12 and of such weight as to create momentum on a downward stroke to drive the stake into the earth.

The front face 14 of the sleeve 12 is provided with a continuous slot 15, the upper and lower ends of which terminate just short of the extreme ends of the sleeve. Both the upper and the lower end of the sleeve 12 is finished with a collar band 16 and 17, respectively.

The hammer rod 13 extends well beyond the upper collar end 16 of the sleeve to facilitate a high connection to the surveyors rod 11, the lower end 18 of which is connected to the lowermost end 19 of the hammer rod by means of a bolt 20 extending through the slot 15 in the front face 14 of the sleeve.

In this connection, it will be noted that the belt 20 has a threaded end 21 secured in a tapped bore 22 in the hammer rod 13. A collar 23 on the bolt 20 is guided for sliding movement in the slot 15 and acts as a spacer between the sleeve and the rod 11. Since the rod moves up and down with the hammer 13 and therefore is subjected to shock along with the bolt 20, a stirrup 25 connected to the bolt 20 provides additional support for the bottom of the rod 11 to thereby alleviate shearing of the latter where the bolt extends therethrough. A wing nut 26 and washer on the outer end of the bolt 20 serves to secure the rod to the stirrup 25, spacer 23 and hammer 12.

The connection of the rod 11 to the upper end 28 of the hammer 13 is much the same except that no stirrup is required but rather a clip 35 of channel-like cross section. The channel-like clip 35 embraces the rod 11 and a bolt 30 extends through the rod 11, the web of the clip 35,. a spacer collar 33 and has its threaded inner end 31 secured in a tapped bore 32 in the upper end 28 of the hammer. A wing nut 36 and washer on the outer threaded end of the bolt 30 serves to secure the rod 11 to the hammer and both bolt arrangements 20 and 30 thereby serve to maintain the rod 11 in spaced parallel relation to the hammer 13, as well as up and down movement therewith.

The rod 11 may well extend beyond the upper end 28 of the hammer 13 and this may be accomplished by an adjustable extension of the rod of well known design in the art of surveying equipment.

Since the hubs or stakes must sometimes be driven below existing grade and since the lower end of the rod 11 must follow the hammer rod 13, I have provided a separate hammer rod portion which for purposes of clarity will hereinafter be referred to as an anvil 38. The anvil 38 is a free floating section of hammer rod slidable within the sleeve 12 independently of the hammer 13. The anvil 38 is maintained in the lower end of the sleeve 13 by means of a separate bolt 40 (FIG. and collar 43, the bolt having a hex outer head 46 and a threaded inner end which is threaded into a tapped bore 42 in the anvil. The bolt 40 extends through the slot in the front face 14 of the sleeve 12 and the collar 43 rides and is guided within the slot 15 and serves as a stop engageable with the lower end of the slot to prevent the anvil 38 from falling out of the sleeve 13. In other words, the sleeve metal at the bottom of the slot serves as a stop for limiting further downward movement of the anvil. Moreover, the bolt 40 is so disposed relative to the upper end 44 of the anvil, that when the collar 43 engages the bottom of the slot 15, the lower end 41 of the anvil can extend well beyond the lower collared end 17 of the sleeve 12 to drive a stake beyond the same and beneath the surface of earth upon which the sleeve stands.

There is a further advantage of having the extension of the hammer rod, namely the anvil 38, extend beyond the collared lower end 17 of the sleeve. By such an extension adapters of various kinds and for other needs can be connected to the anvil for operation by the hammer. Such other needs are illustrated in FIGS. 6 and 7.

In FIG. 6 the lower end 41 of the anvil 38 is shown connectable to the upper end of a pipe driving adapter 47. This adapter 47 is a pipe cap 48 having an internal thread adapted to fit the threaded upper end of a length of pipe (not shown) often used in place of a stake for the same purpose or for locating property lines, boundaries or bench marks in the course of a survey. The pipe cap 48 has a socket 49 of square cross section welded to its upper end to receive the anvil 38 such that the lower face 41 thereof rests on the cap 48 to transmit power blows from the hammer 13 thereto. A pin 50 extends through aligned registerable bores 5152 in the anvil and walls of the socket 49 to secure the pipe driving adapter 47 to the anvil 38.

In FIG. 7 the arrangement is much the same except that the bottom end of the socket 49 is welded to a flat plate 55 which serves as a tamper 57. In this arrangement the bottom face 41 of the anvil 38 rests on the plate 55, and a pin 50 extends through bores 51 and 52' in the anvil and socket walls respectively to secure the tamper 57 to the anvil.

As best seen in FIGS. 2 and 4, a cross bar 60 extends transversely through the upper end 28 of the hammer 13 well above the upper end of the sleeve 12 to provide a pair of handles, 61 and 62 respectively, one on each respective side of the hammer.

In operation the device 10 is loaded with a hub or stake S which has a sliding fit with some frictional bearing with respect to the inner surfaces of the sleeve 12. The pointed end P of the stake is then placed at the mark designated to receive it. The rodman then grasps the handles 61 and 62 while facing the instrumentman who sights the front face of the rod 11 via the telescope T on the transit tripod as seen in FIG. 1.

As noted in FIG. 4 in relation to the sectional view FIG. 5, the anvil 38 and hammer 13 meet on a plane which corresponds with the six inch (6) graduation of the rod 11. In other words, the anvil 38 in the present disclosure is six inches long. Consequently, when the anvil rests upon the top surface 0 of the stake S extend ing into the sleeve and the lower end 45 of the hammer rests upon the upper surface 44 of the anvil, the graduations or rule R printed on the front face of the rod 11 start from a zero reading corresponding with the upper surface 0 of the stake (lower surface 41 of the anvil).

Now then, as the hammer rod 13 is reciprocated up and down relative to the sleeve 12 by means of the handles 61-62, the rod 11 and hammer 13 are raised and lowered in unison relative to the anvil 38 and stake S thereby driving the stake into earth. As each blow of the hammer 13 is thus applied to the anvil and stake, the instrumentman is sighting the rule R on the rod 11. The horizontal hair line in the telescope T being interposed on the graduations on the rule R gives the instrumentman full knowledge of the elevation of the upper surface 0 of the stake after each blow of the hammer. Consequently, as the upper surface 0 of the stake gradually arrives at the desired elevation the instrumentman, by arm signals, can advise the rodman to lighten the blows (manipulation of the hammer) and then order him to cease operation of the hammer when the top surface 0 of the stake is set at the proper elevation.

The operation is much the same when the pipe driving adapter 47 is attached to the lower end of the anvil 38. The tamper 57 is operated in the same way to re-establish a firm footing for a stake in the event a hole in the earth caused by a previously incorrectly set stake which had to be removed.

With the foregoing arrangement it will be appreciated one man, a stake driver, can be eliminated and that a rodman need only manipulate the hammer since the rod moves therewith and is at all times coordinated with the top surface of the stake being driven.

While the foregoing construction and operation of my new stake setter has been described in specific detail it will be appreciated that it may be susceptible to variation, alteration and/or modification without departing from the spirit of my invention. I therefore desire to avail myself of all variations, alterations and/ or modifications as fairly come within the purview of the appended claims.

What I claim as new and desire to protect by Letters Patent is:

1. A stake setter comprising a main body, a hammer rod mounted in said body for manual up and down movement therein, means at the lower end of said sleeve body for supporting a stake in alignment with said hammer rod to receive impactive blows therefrom, and a surveyors rod connected to said hammer rod for movement therewith and coordinated with the upper end of a stake engaged by the lower end of said hammer rod for indicating the elevation of the upper end of said stake.

2. A stake setter comprising a guide sleeve, a hammer mounted for reciprocation in said sleeve for driving a stake in alignment with said hammer into earth, and a surveyers rod on said hammer having grade indicating indicia thereon starting at the stake engaging end of said hammer for indicating the elevation of the upper end of a stake engaged by said hammer.

3. A stake setter comprising a sleeve body, a hammer rod reciprocably mounted in said body, means on the upper end of said hammer rod facilitating manual reciprocation thereof relative to said body for driving a stake, and surveyors rod indicia connected to said hammer rod zeroed at the base end thereof for indicating the elevation of the top surface of a stake being driven by said hammer rod.

4. A stake setter comprising a sleeve body, .a hammer mounted for reciprocation in said body, said sleeve body having its lower end adapted to receive and support a stake in alignment with said hammer for imparting impactive blows to said stake, said sleeve body having a slot formed in its fore face, a calibrated surveyors rod associated with said hammer, means for connecting said rod to the upper end of said hammer exteriorly of said sleeve, means extending through said slot for connecting the lower end of said rod to said hammer within said sleeve, and the calibrations on said surveyors rod being coordinated with the lower end of said hammer for indicating the elevation of the upper end of a stake being driven thereby.

5. A stake setter comprising a sleeve body, a hammer mounted for reciprocation in said body, said sleeve body having its lower end adapted to receive and support a stake in alignment with said hammer for imparting impactive blows to said stake, said sleeve body having a slot formed in its fore face, a calibrated surveyors rod associated with said hammer, means for connecting said rod to the upper end of said hammer exteriorly of said sleeve,

means extending through said slot for connecting the lower end of said rod to said hammer within said sleeve, an anvil in said sleeve below said hammer, means on said anvil extending into said slot for limiting movement of said anvil relative to said sleeve yet facilitating driving of a stake thereby beyond the lower end of said sleeve, and the lower end of said surveyors rod being so disposed relative to said hammer and said anvil as to coordinate the calibrations on said surveyors rod with the upper end of a stake being driven by said hammer and anvil to thereby facilitate establishing the elevation of the upper end of such stake.

6. A stake setter comprising a sleeve body, a hammer mounted for manual reciprocation in said body, said sleeve body being adapted to receive and support a stake in alignment with said hammer, an anvil in the lower end of said sleeve between said hammer and a stake aligned therewith for driving such stake beyond the lower end of said sleeve, and means for limiting movement of said anvil relative to said sleeve and for maintaining a portion of said anvil within said sleeve.

7. A stake setter comprising a sleeve body, a hammer mounted for manual reciprocation in said body, said sleeve body being adapted to receive and support a stake in alignment with said hammer, an anvil in the lower end of said sleeve between said hammer and a stake aligned therewith for driving such stake beyond the lower end of said sleeve, means for limiting movement of said anvil relative to said sleeve and for maintaining a portion of said anvil Within said sleeve, and a surveyors rod connected to said hammer for movement therewith and having a calibrated face viewable by a surveyors scope and coordinated with the lower end of said anvil for indicating the level of the top surface of a stake engaged by said anvil.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,977,225 Barker Oct. 16, 1934 2,199,833 Fleischman May 7, 1940 2,867,041 McMillan Jan. 6, 1959 

1. A STAKE SETTER COMPRISING A MAIN BODY, A HAMMER ROD MOUNTED IN SAID BODY FOR MANUAL UP AND DOWN MOVEMENT THEREIN, MEANS AT THE LOWER END OF SAID SLEEVE BODY FOR SUPPORTING A STAKE IN ALIGNMENT WITH SAID HAMMER ROD TO RECEIVE IMPACTIVE BLOWS THEREFROM, AND A SURVEYOR''S ROD CONNECTED TO SAID HAMMER ROD FOR MOVEMENT THEREWITH AND COORDINATED WITH THE UPPER END OF A STAKE EN- 